VIP Party Puts Tribeca Studio In Unwanted Glare of Spotlight
Black cars line up outside Spring Studios for a Calvin Klein show during Fashion Week last month. Studio representatives say it will be the last event until construction is complete and they are granted a liquor license. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
It took Springs Studios hours of community meetings and dozens of negotiating sessions to convince Community Board 1 to okay a liquor license for its big new 120,000-square-foot ad agency and production house at 50 Varick St., near Canal.
It took just one raucous night of partying last month to nearly undo the whole thing.
The Feb. 2 fest, an invitation-only Super Bowl after-party and concert sponsored by Hennessy cognac, featured big-name guests such as Jay-Z and Beyoncé, and an eye-popping light display that went on until 2:30 a.m.
According to CB1, that party flew in the face of the agreement.
At last month’s meeting of the board’s Tribeca Committee, Brad Sussman, the studio’s community relations representative, faced angry board members, some of whom were ready to rescind the board’s support for the license, which is still before the State Liquor Authority.
“What we think is that it’s a bait and switch,” committee co-chair Michael Connolly told Sussman, “and that you purposely misrepresented what you were going to do. You know what the rules are and you flagrantly violated them.”
No events, according to the complex, stipulation-dense agreement, can last past midnight.
Sussman replied that Spring Studios did not plan to keep the party going as late as it did. The rapper Nas showed up nearly an hour late for his performance.
“If we had known in advance that the second entertainer was going to come late, we probably would have handled the contract differently,” Sussman said.
“We apologize, it happened,” he added. “We’re sorry.”
The apology seemed to do little to assuage Elizabeth Lewinsohn, also a committee co-chair and a Hudson Street resident with a view across the Holland Tunnel Rotary of the Spring Street Studios building and its huge windows made for photo shoots. She said the party looked like an “extravagant light show” from her home.
“It was insane,” she said. “I just don’t understand what the rationale there was.”
Aside from the light show, city-mandated construction lights, glowing from the studio’s windows, have also drawn complaints.
Sussman said that Spring Studio’s plans to install blackout shades on its windows, but it needs the landlord’s approval. In the meantime, Spring would dim the construction lights “if it’s still legal and safe” as well as install “temporary window treatments” in nearby residents’ apartments, Sussman said.
Following a Fashion Week show last month, Spring Studios has no more events scheduled until construction of the 120,000-square-foot facility is completed in what is expected to be the next few months, according to Sussman. Soon after that, he said, the agency anticipates receiving its liquor license and will be able to exercise total control over parties and other events that are held in the building.
Jeff Ehrlich, who had worked with Spring Studios on the stipulations but ultimately voted against a board-approved resolution supporting the liquor license, said CB1’s initial approval had rested largely on trust.
“There’s a lot of stipulations,” he said, “but it all depends on goodwill.”
Whether the committee believes there is still enough goodwill to maintain its support for the liquor license remains to be seen.
On Wednesday, March 12, David Hemphill, manager of the U.K.-based studio, is scheduled to appear before the Tribeca Committee for another round of discussions and what could result in a revised resolution on the liquor license for Spring Studios.